Life Of Girl Who Hanged Herself Was Uphill Battle

The abuse and neglect started when she was just months old, according to a comprehensive report on her life released by the state Department of Children and Families Friday.

In many ways, the inability of the state to properly help the New Britain girl through the early part of her life typifies the problems and failures now associated with DCF's emphasis on family preservation in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Children and Families Commissioner Kristine D. Ragaglia said the tragedies surrounding Tabatha's life emphasize the importance of new laws that make it easier for the state to remove children at risk from their homes and place them in proper protective care.

When state social workers began more aggressive attempts to save Tabatha in the last four years of her life under a new system of child protection first, it was too late.

``Tabatha's early history is marked by severe, ongoing and pervasive abuse and neglect,'' the DCF report states. ``Despite several substantiations of physical abuse and neglect . . . the department failed to take appropriate action to protect Tabatha from further trauma.

The state received its first report of abuse of Tabatha when she was 3 weeks old. At 5 months, she was placed in the custody of her godparents after her mother's boyfriend threatened to kill her.

When Tabatha was 13 months old, her pediatrician reported he saw Tabatha's male caretaker ``French kiss'' her while waiting for an appointment. By the time Tabatha turned 2, she was taken to New Britain General Hospital for being ``out of control.'' Hospital staff reported then that Tabatha was being sexually abused by a 17-year-old boy.

At 5, Tabatha was admitted to a psychiatric hospital because she was having nightmares, couldn't sleep and was exhibiting self-destructive behavior.

That same year, state social workers began taking steps to place Tabatha in a foster home. But a judge denied the state's request for temporary custody in January 1989.

By the time Tabatha turned 10 in 1994, she would be hospitalized two more times and placed in two more foster homes. By then, Tabatha had started thinking about suicide. She was unable to sleep and beginning to show unwarranted aggressiveness toward others, the report states.

In spring 1998, Tabatha, then 14, had failed placement at two other residential facilities, spent time in an emergency shelter and ended up at Long Lane School. It was her 15th placement by the state.

In August, Tabatha began threatening suicide again after being told she would no longer have contact with her longtime parole officer. The same month, she was told she was losing her social worker of the past four years.

After several attempts to get Tabatha placed in a more appropriate secure residential treatment program, Long Lane's staff finally arranged to have her transferred to a special facility in Pennsylvania that they felt would certainly be beneficial.

Tabatha never made it. She hanged herself the week before she was to be transferred.